Lunch at the Labs

Some web links I found to be of interest:

• Antioxidants Could Increase Cancer Rates
  Science / AAAS

  Many people take vitamins such as A, E, and C thinking that their antioxidant properties will ward off cancer. But some clinical trials have suggested that such antioxidants, which sop up DNA-damaging molecules called free radicals, have the opposite effect and raise cancer risk in certain people. Now, in a provocative study that raises unsettling questions about the widespread use of vitamin supplements, Swedish researchers have showed that relatively low doses of antioxidants spur the growth of early lung tumors in cancer-prone mice, perhaps by hindering a well-known tumor suppressor gene.

• What Drives Success?
  By Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeldjan

  It turns out that for all their diversity, the strikingly successful groups in America today share three traits that, together, propel success. The first is a superiority complex - a deep-seated belief in their exceptionality. The second appears to be the opposite - insecurity, a feeling that you or what you've done is not good enough. The third is impulse control.

• How to stop giving a F@$% what people think.
  Start living your life

  It's impossible to live up to everyone's expectations. There will always be people - no matter what we say or how we treat them - that will judge us. Whether you're at the gym, at work, taking the train, or even online playing Call of Duty. Even now it's happening. You will never be able to stop people from judging you, but you can stop it from affecting you.

• Indecision is sometime the best way to decide
  by Steve Fleming

  Quick decision-making might seem bold, but the agony of indecision is your brain's way of making a better choice

• The Anti-Fragility of Health
  by Esther Dyson

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb, perhaps best known as the author of The Black Swan, has written a wonderful new book called Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. According to Taleb, things that are anti-fragile - mostly living things - not only resist being broken; they actually grow stronger under stress. When coddled too much, they grow weaker. Evolution is an anti-fragile process.

  Health itself is the capacity to undergo stress and react positively to it - anti-fragility in a specific context. For example, without exposure to infectious agents, the human immune system will never learn how to ward off invaders and may even turn inward, as in auto-immune diseases. Muscles need to work (and be stressed) to grow strong. The discomfort of hunger impels us to eat.

• New Truths That Only One Can See
  It has been jarring to learn in recent years that a reproducible result may actually be the rarest of birds.

  Given the desire for ambitious scientists to break from the pack with a striking new finding, Dr. Ioannidis reasoned, many hypotheses already start with a high chance of being wrong. Otherwise proving them right would not be so difficult and surprising - and supportive of a scientist's career. Taking into account the human tendency to see what we want to see, unconscious bias is inevitable. Without any ill intent, a scientist may be nudged toward interpreting the data so it supports the hypothesis, even if just barely.

• Indefensible Kissinger - By Gary J. Bass
  As more details come to light, the darker his deeds seem.

  Can we please stop already with the tributes to Henry Kissinger? As more and more material gets declassified, there are periodic exposures of his uglier deeds. Walter Isaacson's biography showed in detail how Kissinger had the FBI put wiretaps on journalists and government officials, including some of his own top staffers. A couple of years ago, it was revealed that back in 1975, while discussing how the Khmer Rouge had killed tens of thousands, he told Thailand's foreign minister, "You should also tell the Cambodians"-the Khmer Rouge-"that we will be friends with them. They are murderous thugs, but we won't let that stand in our way." More recently, an Oval Office tape was released that captured Kissinger in 1973 saying, "if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."

• The truth about charter schools:
  Padded cells, corruption, lousy instruction and worse results

  Charter schools are sold as an answer. With awful discipline and shocking scandals, many really cause new problems

• The 'Nutcracker Man' Diet:
  Extinct Species Of Early Human Survived on 'Tiger Nuts,' Not Meat

  Fresh analysis of an extinct relative of humans suggests our ancient ancestors dined primarily on tiger nuts, which are edible grass bulbs, settling a discrepancy over what made up prehistoric diets.

  What does this say about the Paleo diet and eating meat?

• TED isn't a recipe for 'civilisational disaster' - Chris Anderson
  

  It's a misconception that TED talks oversimplify complex subjects. As its curator, I'm committed to the principle that knowledge should be shared.

• This is your brain on religion: Uncovering the science of belief
  Why are some people of faith generous - while others are nuts?

  It does indeed seem that religion must have afforded an evolutionary advantage. Receptiveness to religion is determined by spirituality, which is 50 percent genetically determined, as twin studies have shown. Spirituality is a characteristic that everyone has to a degree, even if they don't belong to a church. Religion is the local shape given to our spiritual feelings. The decision to be religious or not certainly isn't "free." The surroundings in which we grow up cause the parental religion to be imprinted in our brain circuitries during early development, in a similar way to our native language. Chemical messengers like serotonin affect the extent to which we are spiritual: The number of serotonin receptors in the brain corresponds to scores for spirituality. And substances that affect serotonin, like LSD, mescaline (from the peyote cactus), and psilocybin (from magic mushrooms) can generate mystical and spiritual experiences. Spiritual experiences can also be induced with substances that affect the brain's opiate system.

• Review of Richard X. Bove's book "Guardians of Prosperity: Why America Needs Big Banks"
  by Roger Lowenstein

  A Book-Length Defense of Big Banks Goes Long on Straw Men and Conspiracy Theories

• Why Non-Profit Hospitals Are So Profitable
  

  "And then there is the business model of 'non-profit' hospitals, which are, in fact, among the most profitable enterprises in the country."

  "Every hospital has what is called a 'chargemaster,' a list of what it charges for everything from a day in the ICU to a single aspirin."
  "Medicare and insurance companies pay a fraction of the nominal prices. MD Anderson, a high-powered cancer hospital in Houston, charges $283 for a simple chest X-ray and Medicare pays the hospital $20.44."